In the face of significant challenges—from mill closures to tariffs and shifting global markets—one question we hear more than any other from people: “What can I actually do to help?” When the headlines are dominated by uncertainty, it can feel like the hurdles facing the forest industry are too large for any one person to influence. But there is a powerful way to make your voice heard and tell the provincial government it isn’t just an industry priority but a priority for every British Columbian that wants a resilient future.
That way is Forestry is a Solution. Forestry is a Solution is a province-wide initiative led by a broad coalition of workers, community leaders, and industry advocates. Every name added to the list strengthens our collective message of support for communities, workers and families who depend on BC forestry. It has never been easier:
- Visit forestryisasolution.com
- Sign the petition to show our collective strength.
- Send a letter using the simple, automated tool to tell your MLA why this sector matters to you.
Another suspicious fire has hit the Somass Lands on Port Alberni’s uptown waterfront, this time the remaining mill building. The call came in just before 9 a.m. on Tuesday, March 31. … Locked fire hydrants adjacent to the building presented another challenge, Port Alberni Fire Dept. Chief Mike Owens said. “It’s an old, historic industrial property; there are a number of places where the water main has been compromised,” he added. The city’s water works department arrived promptly and activated the hydrants. …Owens said crews immediately deemed the fire as suspicious because the sawmill is abandoned and there is no electricity run to the building. …The two mill buildings and a pair of silos were left standing after the city purchased the mill from Western Forest Products in 2021… When the city partnered with Matthews West developers, the thought was to possibly incorporate parts of the three buildings into a new master plan for the area.
The B.C. government says it’s making legislative changes to bolster access to wood fibre, including timber damaged by wildfires, insects and windstorms. The Forests Ministry says the changes will potentially increase the supply of fibre by as much as 17,700 truckloads and allow B.C. Timber Sales to auction off contracts for forestry thinning, wildfire risk reduction and damaged timber salvage. A statement from the ministry says these “fibre-generating activities” will be available to forestry contractors and value-added mills. …B.C.’s forestry industry has been facing a shortage of fibre as the Wood Pellet Association of Canada said in 2025 that the fibre supply has fallen more than 40 per cent since 2018… Kurt Niquidet with B.C. Council of Forest Industries said in 2024 that local and global demand for wood products to build more affordable housing is growing, but the forestry industry is also facing a “critical shortage” of timber for B.C. mills.
The BC Council of Forest Industries (COFI) Annual Convention is just days away, with registration closing April 2 for the April 8–10 event at the JW Marriott Parq Vancouver.
The Council of Forest Industries 2026 conventions welcomes veteran strategist 
Alberta’s government has tabled legislation to ease regulations and barriers to more easily enable the sale of some goods from other provinces. It’s part of a commitment Alberta made with its provincial and federal counterparts in signing an interprovincial free trade pact in November. That trade accord, which is supposed to take effect this summer, would see provinces recognize each other’s regulations for most consumer and capital products to avoid duplicative inspections and requirements. …Government officials told reporters before the bill was tabled that manufacturers in industries such as oil and gas, lumber and logging and fertilizer producers will likely see the most positive impact once the pact takes effect.
The economic headwinds facing B.C. are expected to have an even greater impact than originally expected, with accounting firm Deloitte Canada downgrading its economic forecast for the province in its most recent update. Originally projecting 1.6 per cent GDP growth in 2026 in its January report, the financial consulting giant now predicts B.C. will have “muted” growth of only 1.2 per cent. Dawn Desjardins, chief economist at Deloitte Canada, said some of the main culprits are the declining forestry sector, which continues to face mill closures and thousands of job losses due to a lack of fibre, as well as crippling U.S. duties, a population decrease, and uncertainty surrounding the future of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade agreement.
Kalesnikoff Mass Timber is launching a new line of modular timber classrooms today at the world’s largest mass timber conference in Portland, Oregon, showcasing its innovation to thousands of attendees. The company said that the classrooms are designed to address growing pressures on school infrastructure across North America. “Many communities are growing, leaving local schools at capacity,” said Chris Kalesnikoff, President and C.E.O. of Kalesnikoff. “These new modulars can be built and deployed rapidly, are cost effective, and create a warm and exceptional learning environment for students and staff.” The modular classrooms, constructed of cross-laminated timber (CLT) from Kalesnikoff’s mass timber facility in the West Kootenays using high-quality B.C. wood, are highly adaptable. They can function as a single classroom or be combined into larger expansions or entirely new schools. They can also be built in single-storey, or stacked configurations, and arrive with pre-installed heating, plumbing and digital systems.
After roughly 100 sawmills, pulp mills, and engineered wood plants closed down or cut shifts since 2000, and thousands of loggers lost their jobs, the trade union representing those workers has its hands full. The consensus is: this is do-or-die time to stabilize the forest industry in British Columbia. USW Canada – District 3 represents workers across Western Canada, including BC’s unionized forestry workforce. Recently, District 3 Director Scott Lunny offered a forward-looking view of the industry on a podcast, despite the challenges it faces. Jeff Bromley, the union’s Wood Council Chair, put it this way: “What’s the alternative—giving up on rural communities throughout the province? We accept the responsibility to manage a transition in the best interest of our members.” …The Provincial Forest Advisory Council’s report, From Conflict to Care, has tabled a set of recommendations — and the Steelworkers Union agrees with its main thrust.
Textbook disaster capitalism. That’s how a forest advocacy group describes the Ministry of Forests’ Forest Statutes Amendment Act, a set of legislative changes to the Forests and Range Practices Act. “As social license for continuing to log primary forests dries up, the Ministry of Forests doubles down, accelerating logging while claiming that BC is a global leader in sustainable forest practices,” said Jenn Matthews, in a Conservation North news release. …The proposed changes would also expand ‘salvage’ logging, a controversial practice where trees are harvested following a natural disturbance. “Salvage logging – especially in forests that have never been logged – damages soils, wildlife habitat, and water flows,” said Conservation North’s director, ecologist Michelle Connolly. “Moreover, when you log after natural disturbance, you’re robbing the forest of key building blocks (including still-living trees) for the forest that will follow. The Ministry’s claim that this is forest stewardship is garbage.”
High in a tree in Vancouver’s Stanley Park, an arborist dangles from a climbing harness with a chainsaw… The work is part of a significant – and, to some, distressing – intervention to address the Hemlock looper moth outbreak that killed almost a third of the public park’s 600,000 trees between 2020 and 2023. …what’s happening in the park underscores the broader challenges of managing city green spaces in the era of climate change. …The city says those dead trees pose many risks, and the only way to deal with them is with saws. Joe McLeod, the city’s associate director of urban forestry, called it a “risk mitigation project for public safety.” …To better understand the twin risks of wildfire and falling trees, the city hired veteran wildfire ecologist and forester Bruce Blackwell. …None of this has sat well with Stanley Park Preservation Society founder, Michael Robert Caditz. …But fuel mitigation isn’t about preventing the most common fires; it’s about protecting against the worst possible ones, the kind of fires that occur on the most extreme weather days, when high temperatures, low humidity and strong winds combine to drive the wildfire risk into the red. [A Globe and Mail subscription is required for full story access]
The B.C. government is recommending a fine against those responsible for the deaths of more than a dozen cattle last fall, but the Ministry of Environment and Parks won’t say who, exactly, investigators believe is to blame for poisoning in the Quesnel area. The October incident prompted public outcry… The cattle … were believed to have been poisoned when they consumed nitrogen fertilizer meant to accelerate timber growth. B.C.’s Ministry of Forests said that laboratory analyses of the fertilizer and animal tissues are still being completed. …Meanwhile, the investigation under the Environmental Management Act has concluded with investigators recommending an administrative penalty — a fine imposed on a person or business alleged to have violated a regulatory requirement. …James Steidle, of Stop the Spray BC, worries that the poisonings did not result from a mishap but from standard forestry practices.
The Ministry of Forests has responded to residents’ concerns about a proposed logging project in the north BX area of Vernon. Area residents launched a petition last month in an effort to halt the 24-hectare logging operation near Hartnell Road and Brookside Creek. “Forestry plans to clear a significant amount of very old cedar and fir trees along the steep Brookside Creek catchment area. It will be highly visible from the many communities in Vernon,” the petition stated. In an email, the MOF said the area will not be clear cut. “BC Timber Sales is in the early stages of developing a wildfire risk-reduction project in the Brookside Creek area to increase forest resiliency against wildfire. Suggestions that the area will be clear cut are incorrect,” the MOF said. …The ministry said wildfire risk reduction projects are guided by a fuel management prescription … typically resulting in relatively high levels of tree retention.
The Province has introduced changes to the Environmental Assessment Act to enhance transparency and predictability by improving how issues raised by First Nations are identified and resolved during environmental assessments, helping ensure responsible resource development. In 2018, the act introduced new mechanisms for First Nations collaboration in environmental assessments to provide a clear and timely path for projects to move through the assessment process, while respecting Indigenous rights, values and culture. Dispute resolution under the act enables the use of a third-party facilitator if the Province and a First Nation are unable to reach consensus at milestones during the environmental assessment. It was included in the act to help support reconciliation and enhance timeliness and predictability in environmental assessments. Updates are being proposed to better meet these intended objectives.
PRINCE GEORGE – Canada’s forests are burning faster than they can be replanted, and the Canadian Tree Nursery Association is calling it a crisis, though not everyone agrees on the scale of the problem. The association says more than 7.3 billion seedlings would be needed just to replant 15 percent of the areas burned in the last three years of record wildfires. In B.C., the situation is worsening: seedling production is expected to decline from 300 million in 2024 to 226 million by 2026. Dr. Phil Burton, Professor Emeritus in Forest Ecology and Management at the University of Northern BC, agrees there’s a genuine problem but says the numbers need context. Millions of hectares that burned in places like the Northwest Territories were never part of the managed forest, he notes, and many forests are capable of recovering on their own. …The central debate isn’t whether any replanting is needed most agree some is. The question is how much, and who pays for it. 
…Wildfires scorched 2.9 million hectares of Saskatchewan forest last year, forcing thousands of people from their homes and destroying more than 450 dwellings across the province, according to the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA). Some experts are warning this year could be just as bad. A relatively dry fall and unusual winter conditions are setting the stage, said Colin Laroque, a professor of environmental science at the University of Saskatchewan. …Finance Minister Jim Reiter called this year’s provincial budget “essentially” the status quo for wildfire preparation and response. The province announced a $20-million increase for the SPSA earlier this month, bringing its total budget to $140 million. The increase includes an additional water bomber. …Eric Lamb, a professor at U of S, said extreme weather conditions are no longer rare and require a different approach focused more on preventative measures, like prescribed burns, before a wildfire season begins.
The Okanagan Screen Awards, a two-day celebration of film, creativity, and community, took place March 28–29, 2026 in the sunny paradise of Kelowna, BC. The Okanagan Screen Awards are proudly presented by the Okanagan Society of Independent Filmmaking (OSIF), a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting, educating, and advocating for independent filmmakers in the Okanagan region. Congratulations to “BC is Burning” for winning 1st Place in the Feature Docs category! 
The BC Wildfire Service (BCWS) will be jointly working on two fuel reduction measures near Lytton, one in Botanie Valley and the other near Highway 1 north of the town, and one in the Hat Creek Valley. The Hat Creek cultural burn will cover an area of up to 40 hectares, approximately 15 kilometres west of Cache Creek in the Upper Hat Creek Valley. The project, known as the Harry Lake Grasslands cultural burn, is in partnership with the Thompson Rivers Natural Resource District and Bonaparte First Nation. The burn is part of a multi-year project meant to introduce fire into the Upper Hat Creek Valley. Key goals of the burn include revitalization of cultural burning practices by St’uxwtéws (Bonaparte) First Nation; reintroduction of fire to a fire deficit ecosystem; and ecological maintenance and improvement of grasslands. It is also part of a research initiative being undertaken by the University of British Columbia into prescribed fire in the area.
WorkSafeBC is holding a virtual public hearing on proposed amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation. The virtual public hearing will be streamed live on April 21, 2026, in two sessions. The first will take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and the second from 3 to 5 p.m. Further information on how to view or participate in the virtual public hearing will be provided closer to the hearing date. These details will be posted on 
Brian Bruce Welch passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on January 5, 2026. His loss is felt by all who knew him, and he will be remembered for his dedication to career, family, and friends. …Brian worked for years as a commercial fisherman… When terra firma called, Brian was welcomed by father Bruce E. Welch to formally join the family business, thus becoming the fourth generation to help carry forward the legacy of Olympic Forest Products Ltd, which operated continuously between 1932 and 2026 and was at one point amongst the top BC coastal forestry industry operators. Brian’s long career in the forest industry reflected both pride in family history and commitment to strengthening business for the future, often despite significant industry wide challenges and hurdles. …In 1988 Bruce Welch appointed Brian President of Olympic Forest Products Ltd, Bruce assuming the role of Chair for what had become a group of companies. Following family tradition, Brian served on the TLA board in 2002 and 2003, chairing the Industrial Committee and serving on the Worker Health & Safety Committee.
Ross Hay-Roe left this world on March 24, 2026, with his two children by his side, after three long years of living each day without the love of his life, Lee, as his constant companion. …After graduating high school, Ross studied Aeronautics at Cal Tech in Calgary and moved to Toronto where Ross worked on the Avro Arrow. His career as an Aeronautical Engineer ended abruptly the day the Canadian Government shut down the program in 1957. Ross made his way back to Edmonton where he studied commerce at the University of Alberta, later achieving the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) designation. Moving back to Toronto, Ross began working as a sell-side equity analyst focusing on the Forest Products industry. Moving around to various firms, Ross developed a great reputation in the industry… Ross and Lee helped to start an independent investment research shop called Equity Research Associates. Given the level of insight and critical thinking Ross brought to his analysis, his viewpoints were highly sought after. Ross expanded the firm’s forest products coverage and eventually sold the business, which now operates as ERA Forest Products Research.
Health officials and advocates are raising concerns about gaps in air quality monitoring across rural BC, saying some communities may be exposed to dangerous wildfire smoke levels if they don’t have access to accurate local data. It comes as the health impacts of wildfire smoke are becoming clearer, and as new monitoring stations are being installed in parts of the province to address the gaps. Air quality is typically monitored by federal and provincial governments and according to Environment Canada, 286 sites across every province and territory make up the National Air Pollution Surveillance program. “Even with nearly 300 sites, there are enormous gaps in geography — often at the expense of rural and remote communities,” said Christopher Lam, of the BC Lung Foundation. …Smoke from the record-breaking Canadian wildfires in 2023 caused an estimated 5,400 acute deaths and about 82,100 premature deaths worldwide.